Hong Kong's Economy Shrinks
For First Time in Five Years

By

Chester Yung

Updated Aug. 15, 2008 8:07 am ET

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's economic growth slowed more quickly than expected in the second quarter, showing its first quarter-to-quarter decline in five years as the effects of financial problems elsewhere spilled into the territory.

Gross domestic product dropped by 1.4% on a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter basis -- the first such decline since the second quarter of 2003, when Hong Kong was hit by an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which brought some segments of the economy almost to a halt.